Ponder The Racket VII

- How good is Pavs starting to look? As a tennis fan, time flies, but the girl still isn’t 20. She’s starting to look physically fit, and already has some of the biggest power on the tour. A serious “big babe” throwback, if you like. If she can continue to stay fit,, improve her movement, and find the consistency needed with the forehand and serve… wow, watch out.

- Julia Goerges just might be a serious player in the future of women’s tennis over the next 3-5 years or so. Really. Her serve is plus, her forehand is plus, her backhand is solid. She just has a very versatile all around game that she’s growing into at age 22. If she can start to find ways to figure out tougher opponents (she nearly did in Australia) she’ll find her way into the top 10 and start to seriously challenge the top names (a bit like Flavia did a couple summers ago, the only difference is that Julia is still quite young).

- Not much has been written about Germany, but I would expect top knotch players, especially on the women’s side, to keep surfacing. They’re showing their stuff through Fed Cup and with the success of Goerges, Petko and Barrois, and by the sounds of it, it’s just the beginning. Likely more will be written on Germany as they really start to stick around, but from what I’ve heard, there are fantastic facilities there and a ton of opportunities to get out and play and learn.

- Everyone has been on “fading Fed” watch for a while. I don’t think it is going to happen suddenly, like a second round loss at a slam or something, but I do think the signs are slowly appearing. Specifically on the backhand side. It’s not even that it’s a total mess, but it no longer looks like he’s able to create a lot of the magic and crazy angles off that wing that we are used to seeing from him. To boot, opponents who have really tried to beat up on that side in the past are likely going to find real success, as we saw today with Richie’s win.

- The top 7 WTA seeds are in the final 8 (along with Greta Arn, lulz) in Rome. Can we just take a second to realize that things aren’t that wide open for Roland Garros? Sure, there’s probably 3 guys with a legit shot for the men, but if the top 8 women seeds made the quarters at Roland Garros, would people all of a sudden go “wow, the WTA is so wide open because of no Sisters, Kim, or Justine”? Sure, someone outside of the top 8 might win in Paris in a few weeks time, but if the top 8 are the serious favourites and are going in playing well, things are way less wide open than most of us are probably thinking.

- Andy Murray might be figuring out how to play on clay. Yes, you read that right. Years ago, I couldn’t figure out why Muzz sucked so badly on the dirt. Great mover, fantastic defense, consistent… he should be great, right? The problem has always been that he relies on pace, both his own and his opponents, and keeps things flat and dangerous. That doesn’t work so well on clay. However, from what I’ve seen, he seems to be relying more on the things that work for him on clay, and developing some patience. I don’t think he’s a contender for Roland Garros, but matching his career best, a quarterfinal berth, would be a great and likely result for him.

And about Roland Garros field, is a matter of point of view. The past years we are so used to see Nadal’s dominance that EIGHT consistent players contending is A LOT. But the same way the top-8 can have a consistent week, they can have a bad day and lose to a no-one.